


burn out with passion

by agrestenoir



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Cat tendencies, F/M, Fluff, Identity Reveal, Kissing, Marinette Knows What's Up, Poor Adrien, Romance, why is that even a tag?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-12
Updated: 2017-05-12
Packaged: 2018-10-30 20:29:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10884357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agrestenoir/pseuds/agrestenoir
Summary: “I can’t help but worry about you sometimes,” she told him with a frustrated moan, dropping her forehead against their joined hands. “You’re always getting mixed up in things you shouldn’t be.”“Look, I’m sorry, butturning into a catwasn’t exactly on the agenda when I took this job.” A small smile finally broke out on her face, and Chat Noir felt ridiculously smug. “It’s like puberty, I guess. You don’t know when it’s gonna happen, but it does, and it sucks.”





	burn out with passion

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LadySerendipitous](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadySerendipitous/gifts).



> This is a belated birthday gift for the wonderful [Ochalla](https://ladyserendipitous.tumblr.com/). I absolutely love her and was super happy to make this for her. She has a love for tendencies!trope, so I hope I did this justice.
> 
> Feel free to check me out at [agrestenoir](https://agrestenoir.tumblr.com/) and come scream about these dorks with me!
> 
> Also, this is a very loose sequel to my one-shot [Spark](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6926110). No need to read that at all and this is a stand alone, aside from a short reference to the happenings of Spark (i.e. a certain kiss). 
> 
> I really hope y'all enjoy this. Hope you like it, Muse <3 Love you.
> 
> (And yes, the title is a meme.)

 

If there was one thing that Adrien Agreste knew a little something about, it was cats.

Even though he’d never had a pet aside from a pair of fish when he was younger, and even though he had no interest in owning one now, he’d made a commitment to learn as much about the animal as he could. Perhaps the urge stemmed from the fact that he was now a cat-themed superhero jumping across Paris rooftops, or that he had a cat kwami who followed him around every single hour of the day (except shower time—Adrien had put his foot down on that issue _really_ quickly). Regardless, Adrien knew more about cats than he cared to admit—whether it was the best brand of food or atypical behaviors of aggression—it had become almost second nature to him to rattle off cat facts to any poor soul that was in the vicinity to hear him.

Which is why, when the latest akuma poised a sword over Ladybug’s chest, intent on driving it through her— _that vulnerable heart surrounded by a rib cage of steel_ —Adrien, as Chat Noir, was taken back as he lowered himself into a crouch and _hissed_. Hissing, as he recalled from his plethora of cat-related knowledge, was a cat behavior, and usually not a human one, meant to provide warning to anyone he encountered, that he was afraid but ready for battle if necessary. Which shouldn’t be so surprising since he was Chat Noir, and he’d do anything to protect his Lady.

With his partner so close to defeat, he couldn’t afford to stand still and wait for the shock to set in, not like the way Ladybug’s eyes widened and her lips parted in surprise, and instead grabbed his baton and went to war against the akuma. When the battle was finally over, akuma cleansed and civilian saved, Ladybug turned to him with a question poised on the edge of her lips until the _beep beep beep_ of their Miraculous broke through the haze and spurred them both into action, retreating to secluded areas to transform back into their civilian selves.

As Plagg worked his way through Camembert slices Adrien kept on his at all times, he voiced the question Ladybug had been prepared to ask, “What was _that_?”

“What was what?” Plagg asked absently, sniffing for crumbs in the pockets of Adrien’s jeans.

“The hissing?” Adrien nudged him with his finger, catching the kwami’s attention. “I _hissed_ at the akuma.”

“Cats tend to do that,” Plagg said and landed on his shoulder, resting lazily against the boy’s neck. “I know you know that.”

Adrien rolled his eyes because _as usual_ Plagg wasn’t following his point. “Yeah, I know cats do that, but _humans_ typically don’t.”

“But you do.” Plagg’s voice was easy, as if he’d explained this numerous time before and Adrien just couldn’t pick it up. “You’re Chat Noir, and in case you didn’t notice, part cat.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It’s not unusual for Chat Noirs to pick up some… cat-like tendencies.” They had finally made it back to the school, and Plagg hid himself away in the collar of his over shirt, nestled against his warm skin for an afternoon nap after the exhausting battle. Adrien couldn’t blame him.

While he knew Plagg tended to overdramatize everything, even Adrien could feel the weariness sinking deeper, each step jarring his aching bones and nearly buckling his knees. “I.. I’m not turning into a cat the more I use the Miraculous, am I?”

He could feel Plagg’s eyes burning into the back of his neck. “You watch too much anime.”

“Hey!” Adrien protested, opening his shirt to yell at the kwami. “It’s a perfectly legit question, and you and I both know you love anime too!”

“Uhm… Adrien?” Adrien resisted the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose as he recognized the voice as Nino’s, and he’d just been caught yelling at his t-shirt for the third time that week. Honestly, for a system build on secrets, you’d think that Plagg would have a more obscure way of conversing with Adrien in public. “You okay, dude?”

Adrien stood in the doorway of the classroom, red-faced and embarrassed, wondering if he just _didn’t_ answer then Nino would forget he was there (or existed).

“Adrien?”

“Oh, Nino, I… I am so glad you’re safe!” Adrien proclaimed, plastering a wide smile on his face as he turned to face his friend with open arms. Pretending the moment had never happened seemed to be the best course of action at the given moment, and had proven successful in prior instances, so who was he to quit once he had a good thing going? “I was looking all over for you when the akuma attacked, but I couldn’t find you. I thought you’d been turned… into—” He paused, fumbling for a plausible excuse. “—into… _a c-cat!_ ”

There was a moment of silence, and then Nino’s hesitant voice asked, “…I thought it was a sword akuma?”

There was a silent snickering against his chest that had Adrien slapping a hand over Plagg’s hiding space to muffle his laughter. “Y-You know, I wasn’t actually sure. When the akuma attacked, I just _ran._ You know me, yeah, such a scaredy cat.”

“I thought you were looking for me?”

 _For god’s sake,_ Adrien mentally slapped himself in the face as Nino was usually slow to pick up on his excuses, but this time he was on point. Since when had the other boy gotten a new Bullshit Radar™?

He turned back towards the classroom, pretending he hadn’t heard Nino’s question, and headed for his seat. By now, most of the class had returned after scattering during the initial evacuation, but Madame Bustier always allotted a few extra minutes for students who may have been sidetracked by the akuma. Nino was quick to follow, studying Adrien with a cautious gaze, as if searching for answers to questions he didn’t even know he had yet. It sent a pang of guilt through him, but Adrien simply pressed his lips into a thin line and kept walking. Telling Nino his secret would solve a lot of problems, and perhaps stop his friend from worrying so much, but it was safer to keep it to himself. He wouldn’t be the reason Nino got hurt.

“So you up for some Ultra Mega Strike tonight?” Nino asked, breaking the silence between them once they were seated at their desks.

“I wish, but I’ve got a fencing lesson after school and still have to finish that report for literature class.” Adrien rested his elbows on the table, chin in hand. “Can I get a raincheck for tomorrow?”

Nino happily accepted and was soon rattling off about the latest upgrades in the game, and Adrien couldn’t have been happier. Soon, the _hissing_ incident was completely forgotten, and really, what was there to worry about? He’d probably just gotten into the battle too much, and it’d slipped out.

There was absolutely _nothing_ unusual going on here, else Plagg would have told him.

(Right?)

*

_Wrong._

The next one came in like a bullet, sudden and explosive, when Ladybug and he met on the Eiffel Tower during their patrol—it was a joint patrol night, as Thursday usually were, and they always rendezvoused before heading home. As it turned out, the hissing incident wasn’t a one-time deal as he sat, perched on a metal rung with his partner on the one above him, both looking out over the slumbering city. Wind whistling past their ears, whipping bangs and hair ties around like a tornado, neither heard the flock of pigeons that flew by, flapping their wings needlessly in front of them.

Chat Noir lost all sense of control as the feathery foes rushed past, the sharp and sudden _hissss_ slipping from his lips. Sniffling to himself, he let out another hiss as they flew away, out towards the horizon, and could only scratch at the itch building in his nose with a pout.

“You okay?” Ladybug asked him, and seriously, if he heard that question one more time, he might spontaneously combust.

“I’m fine,” he grumbled, still glaring at the pigeons.

“You hissed again.” Ladybug’s worried eyes peered up at him eerily in the darkness. “Since when do you hiss?”

He debated whether to slip in a pun or some flirty banter, pass the moment off with bravado, but the fact of the matter was that his partner was _concerned_ about him. He wouldn’t joke around with her about something like this. When it came to their safety, there was no time for the shits and giggles or his avoidance tactics. It came to protecting his partner and ensuring that she was alright, whether that meant defense or comfort. Chat Noir had a duty of care to his partner, and he would never stray from it.

“I don’t know,” he said, swinging his legs over the edge of the metal rung and seating himself upright, straight to business. “It just started… happening?” Ladybug frowned at that, but it did nothing to deter him. “There’s nothing I can do about it. It’s literally like second nature to me. I don’t know I’m doing it until it happens.”

“Is it from like… akuma?”

“Plagg said it had to do with being Chat Noir, so apparently now, I’m part cat?”

Ladybug quirked an eyebrow high. “Part... cat?”

Chat Noir could only shrug helplessly. “Do I look like I know anymore? Plagg isn’t exactly… forthcoming with information.”

“Does that happen with all the miraculous?” Ladybug crossed her arms against her chest, looking unsure of herself. Though Chat Noir knew _exactly_ what she was worried about—knowing Ladybug’s ticks and triggers was part of his job description as her partner.

With a sigh, he slipped off his rung and dropped down on hers, one arm encircling his for support. “Look,” he said, cocking his head to the side to fix her with a soft smile. “What do ladybugs even do? Leak pheromones and eat aphids? The worse that you’ll have to deal with is _maybe_ having a diet partly composed of insects. I have to deal with _urine marking_.” She giggled lightly, and the sound was like church bells. “Don’t worry about it, Ladybug. You’re gonna be fine.”

 “But why does it happen _now_? It’s been months since we got our miraculous.” She wasn’t ready to let the subject go just yet.

“Extended miraculous usage?” Chat Noir hazarded a guess and swung down next to her. “Acclimatization to the magic? I don’t know. But if that’s the case, what am I gonna do about it? Not wear my ring?”

Ladybug pressed her lips into a thin line as they fell into silence again. It was stupid, he figured, to be worried about such a little thing. So what if he adopted a few cat-like behaviors? It was worth it for the freedom and powers his miraculous gave him.

“You’ll tell me if it gets worse.” It wasn’t a suggestion or a question. Ladybug meant business.

“Of course.”

“Because if you start doing it outside of the suit, what if people see it?” She bit her bottom lip to stop its shaking. “If they know Chat Noir’s turning into a cat, and then a civilian starts turning into a cat, then it’s gonna be a…”

“… _cat_ astrophe?”

“This is not the time for jokes, this is serious!” She stood up in a rush, anger painting the tips of her cheek a warm pink.  

“Ladybug,” he said, catching her hands as she clenched them into tight fists at her side. Holding them close, he pushed them to her chest, trapping them between her heart and his. “I promise. It’s gonna be fine. _I’m_ gonna be just fine.”

“I can’t help but worry about you sometimes,” she told him with a frustrated moan, dropping her forehead against their joined hands. “You’re always getting mixed up in things you shouldn’t be.”

“Look, I’m sorry, but _turning into a cat_ wasn’t exactly on the agenda when I took this job.” A small smile finally broke out on her face, and Chat Noir felt ridiculously smug. “It’s like puberty, I guess. You don’t know when it’s gonna happen, but it does, and it sucks.”

An explosion of giggles burst from her lips like firecrackers, colorful and bright. He smiled too, happy to see her… _happy_ again. It was rare sometimes to draw a smile from her, especially now a days when the threat that Hawkmoth posed grew bigger and bigger the more time passed. Ladybug, with all the stubbornness and increasing sense of heroism, grew more tense and easily frustration, exhaustion painted in her heavy eyes and hunched shoulders, and he wanted nothing more than to ease the burdens off her shoulders and take them upon himself. He missed the easy times with an ache so strong that sometimes he forgot what it was like to like without it.

Honestly though, he was just happy to see his partner smile again.

By now, the moon rose high in the sky, signaling that it was time for them both to return home. Patrol had been quiet—exactly the kind of night they’d needed.

“I’ll see you around, chaton,” she told him, grabbing the yo-yo off her hip and launching it out at the building across the street. “Take care of yourself.”

“You as well, m’lady.” He dipped into a low bow as she tugged on her string and went flying through the cool, night air. He watched her go, locked on the red-spotted heroine disappearing in a whisper of wind and shadows, until she slipped between the buildings and across a rooftop, fading from his sight.

He headed home himself, pondering the dilemma he now faced. So, he was part-cat, perhaps a little bit more than Plagg had originally alluded too, but that didn’t mean it had to be a problem, like Ladybug obviously thought it would be. He would just be subjected to hissing and maybe some other odd-ball behavior (but please, oh please, urine marking was just a joke) while he was in the suit, so no big deal. He could handle it.

It wasn’t like there would be any more curveballs.

(Right?)

*

Wrong.

 _Again_.

Honestly, Adrien should just _stop_ putting himself up for failure, but at this point, he’d just kind of learned to roll with the flow of things. The hissing incidents weren’t the only things that occurred—he’d started purring and brushing up against his friends (and hadn’t _that_ been an awkward conversation to have with Nino), and _of course_ there was more hissing (but _thank God_ there was no urine marking). Ladybug grew increasingly more anxious the more he showed cat-like tendencies, and he couldn’t blame her. It was a part of things that neither understood, even while the kwamis reassured them that the behavior was perfectly natural for Miraculous holders.

Adrien’s only beef was that Ladybug had yet to show any odd tendencies. They were supposed to be partners—one another’s other half—and yet he was the only one suffering through Miraculous puberty and all its nasty side effects.

“It happens with time,” Plagg told him, munching on a cube of Camembert. “The longer you wear it, the more it.... becomes a part of you.”

Adrien ran a hand down his face in frustration. “So do I have to stop wearing the ring to make things go back to normal? I mean, I can handle it if it’s just while I’m Chat Noir, but it’s happening outside the suit too!” He turned to the kwami with wide, worried eyes. “Nino touched my shoulder today, and I _purred_.”

Plagg hid his smile in his cheese. “That sounds like a _you_ problem.”

“Plagg!”

The kwami chuckled lightly to himself and swallowed the cheese, green eyes lit with amusement. A warm flush washed over Adrien as he stared at everywhere but the kwami, wishing that he could sink through the floor. He wasn’t lying when he said he’d wanted things to return to normal. His greatest fear was that he wouldn’t be able to control the cat-like tendencies and that they’d come back to haunt him. The behaviors were like second-nature to him, absent mindedly occurring in situation he couldn’t afford to have them observed in.

“So why haven’t you told Ladybug yet?” Plagg continued, and Adrien swore that it was the kwami’s goal to break him by the end of the day.

“Because it’s none of her business,” he snapped, irritation sparking the ends of his frayed nerves. He fixed Plagg with an icy glare, eyes glinting dangerously in the low lighting of the boy’s restroom. “I told her everything would be fine, and it will be. She’s… already dealing with a lot of stuff right now, and I don’t want to make her any more worried about me than she already is.”

“Mmhmm.”

“I mean it,” Adrien pressed and opened his shirt for Plagg to take shelter in. “I’ve just gotta get control over this.”

“Trust me, it’s harder than you think,” Plagg finally said but disappeared into his clothing without further argument.

“This cat’s got it in the bag,” he reaffirmed before heading back to class.

It would be fine.

(Right?)

*

Wrong.

He should have known it would all come back to haunt him in some way or another.

The calm that followed the storm didn’t last long. On a particular ordinary Friday, two weeks after the incidents started piling up, Adrien burst into the classroom in a frenzy, shoulders heaving forward as he inhaled air like sweet nectar for his burning lungs. There had been an akuma battle before school that morning, and as he’d left the house as Chat Noir, he’d had no Gorilla and thus had to run to school in hopes of making it before roll call. It’d been on the other side of the city, subtle and silent, and not many were bothered by it. Even the media hadn’t shown up on the scene by the time the fight had been finished.

Madame Bustier stared at him with a frown from the front of the room, arms crossed against her chest. “Mr. Agreste, I’m glad you finally decided to join us.”

“T-There was an akuma,” he stammered out between gasps. “I ran as fast as I could, but—”

Madame Bustier was already shaking her head. “I haven’t heard about an akuma this morning, and no alerts have gone out.”

“B-But there _was_ ,” Adrien whined plaintively. “It was a fairy or gremlin thing, like really small, and it was near the—”

“—Perhaps you should see Principal Damocles,” Madame Bustier interjected, already turning back towards her desk to write him an office pass. “This is your third tardy this week, and a word with your father would probably be beneficial—”

Adrien couldn’t help it.

Something flared in his mind, furious and sharp. Anger pounded through his veins in time with his heart, a metallic taste in his mouth turning tart as tension settled in. The hair on the back of his neck rose, skin prickling, and he narrowed his eyes at the teacher. Without a second thought, he pulled his lips back, baring his teeth, and—

—it just _slipped out_ —

— _hissssss_.

The class went quiet around him, and he stood there, huffing and puffing, staring at the still Madame Bustier. His thoughts were finally catching up to his actions with _oh shit I just hissed at my teacher_ and _oh God I hissed I hissed out of the suit, Ladybug’s gonna kill me_ and the ever wonderful _oh fuck, does anyone know I’m Chat Noir?_. Before he could further process the reality of what he’d done, there was a scuffle behind him as Marinette stood up at her desk, wide-eyed and pale.

“M-Madame Bustier, there really was an akuma,” she stammered out, a warm flush blossoming across her cheeks as stared at Adrien. “There was an alert on the Ladyblog, and I think Adrien might have gotten caught in it…”

Adrien didn’t know what to do. Where was she taking this?

“Oh?” Madame Bustier looked doubtful.

“Y-Yeah, I saw him running on my way here,” Marinette pressed, clasping her hands behind her back. She still wasn’t looking at Madame Bustier, only having eyes for Adrien. Scanning his shaking form, looking for answers to the questions brewing in her head, she seemed determined to _find_ something (though Adrien wasn’t sure he wanted to know what it was). “I-I think he might need to go to the nurse, just to make sure he’s okay.”

Madame Bustier mulled over the suggestion, turning to study Adrien as well. He couldn’t imagine he looked well: a train wreck crashing into a station at slow motion. As if they could see the destruction taking place frame by frame, and all were trying to prevent the casualty list. After a few quiet moments, the teacher nodded once and gestured towards the entrance.

“Why don’t you take Adrien to the nurse’s office, Marinette?” she said, expression softening.

Marinette wasted no time before stalking forward and wrapping her hand around his wrist. Adrien had no choice to follow as she literally _dragged_ him from the classroom without a second glance back. He could feel their classmates’ questioning gazes burning into his back as they left, but he couldn’t bare to look at them, already humiliated beyond belief at this point.

“M-Marinette?” he asked her as they headed down the hallway in the exact opposite direction of the nurse’s office. “Where’re we going?”

“You _hissed_ at Madame Bustier,” she said simply, turning her steely gaze on him, blue eyes flashing wildly. “You hissed at our teacher!”

“I-I didn’t mean too,” he stammered out, trying to think of an excuse. “It just happens when I get angry sometimes. My father makes me go to… anger management classes because it’s a problem, and it’s getting better—”

Marinette stopped then. “It hasn’t gotten better. It’s been getting worse.”

Adrien shuddered with anxiety as he registered the fury in her voice. “It’s… I’m getting help for it.”

“Oh we could’ve gotten help for it a long time ago, if you’d told me how bad it was.” Her words were mixed in a snarl, and Adrien’s heart dropped into the pit of his stomach. “Do you know why I asked you to tell me if it was getting worse? Because I could actually get you help if you needed it. There’s someone we could’ve talked to—”

“What’re you talking about, Marinette?”

“I expected you to be _honest_ with me, chaton!”

“I don’t know what you mean,” he said, pressing his hands together in effort to ground their shaking.

She stood in front of him, panicked and afraid—he could see it written across her face, clear as day. “You’re Chat Noir.”

“I’m w-what?!” he sputtered out, fearful and flabbergasted, because _how could she possibly know?!_

“Don’t lie to me,” she snapped, ears painted pink in anger. “I told you this would happen!”

“Marinette, whatever you think is going on right now, I swear it’s not—”

The rest of his statement was lost in the smash of Marinette’s lips against his as she swallowed his words. Adrien stood slack-jawed in the middle of the hallway, lips frozen and unresponsive, as his heart thundered in his chest, _bump bump bump_ as he struggled to catch up and understand just what the hell was going on. It wasn’t until Marinette tilted her head _ever so slightly_ and then _oh!_

He inhaled sharply, hands finding her hips, and pulling her closer against him. Sinking into the kiss, body softening against her tight hold on his shirt, he shuddered. Lips moving against one another, Adrien let out a soft sigh as Marinette began to relax as well, and he couldn’t have been happier. Her hands slowly drifted down his chest, looping loosely around his waist, and his chest rumbled, a soft _purr_ slipping from his lips and into the space between them.

There were a few moments of silence, and then they were pulling apart as quickly as they’d flown together, chests heaving as they gulped for air. Adrien couldn’t believe it. He’d know these lips anywhere.

“Ladybug,” he murmured in an awe-struck voice, staring at her as if seeing the sun for the first time.

“I know how you kiss,” she said, breathless. “You’re Chat Noir. I’d know you anywhere.”

“I… I’m sorry,” he blurted out, eyes still wide as shock began to set in. “I think I’m sort of… screaming inside right now.”

Marinette— _Ladybug_ —Marinette nodded. “Don’t worry, if I weren’t so mad at you right now, I’d be screaming on the outside… _loudly._ Very, very loudly.”

“Right now I’m kind of numb.”

“Sounds about right.”

Adrien closed his eyes and tried to breathe. “You know who I am. You’re Ladybug. You’ve sat behind me in class all year.”

Trembling, Marinette raised a hand and pointed at his chest. “You’re my partner. You’re A-Adrien Agreste, and you… _you didn’t listen to me_ when I told you to tell me if it got worse!” She turned angry again, and _god he really didn’t want to be on the end of this._ “I told you to tell me for a reason, damn it, because if you did it outside the suit, then someone might figure out who you are.”

“No one found out!”

She made a choking sound. “Hello? Me— _someone_.”

“But you don’t count!”

“I damn well do count.” Adrien grimaced at her tone. “And now that I know what’s wrong, we are totally going to talk to Master Fu about this.”

“Who’s—”

“Just, _look_.” Marinette held up both her hands to stop him from speaking. “Right now, we’re going back to class and pretending everything is normal, and afterwards we’re going to visit a very special friend while you explain why you lied to me, and then we can freak—”

“It was just one less thing you had to deal with,” Adrien said, grabbing her wrists in a soft but firm grasp. “You’ve been so stressed out and busy, and I just didn’t wanna be another thing you had to worry about.”

He didn’t expect the look of surprise to sweep across Marinette’s face. She opened her mouth to speak but paused, almost as if she couldn’t find the right words, but then she pressed her lips in a small smile and surged forward, wrapping him up in her arms.

“Thank you,” she murmured against the collar of his shirt.

He closed his eyes, smiling into her hair. “No problem, bug.”

('We still need to talk about this."

"I know," he hummed in response.

"I mean it.")

As she pulled away, dragging a hand down his arm, she gazed at him with a tender expression, and he couldn’t help it. Chest rumbled, a quiet _purr_ echoing between them, and she let out a soft giggle.

“I prefer the purr to the hiss,” she told him, grinning shyly.

“Yeah?” he asked in a whisper.

“Yeah.”

There was a short moment of silence, the span of a single heartbeat, and then she was reaching a tentative hand out towards him, gesturing to the classroom behind them. “Ready to go back, kitty?”

Adrien took it with a tight squeeze, smiling right back. “Of course, m’lady.”

Somehow, he didn't things could get any better than this.

(Right?)

*

Wrong.

(But at least this time it was okay.)


End file.
